


Love Hurts, Or Maybe It Doesn't

by OccupationLove



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Communication., Family Shenanigans, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Mild Blood, Protective Older Brothers, Secrets, Sweet, Tumblr Prompt, Worried Ludwig
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 01:41:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14345301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OccupationLove/pseuds/OccupationLove
Summary: Prompt:“America has a disorder that makes him unable to feel pain, so he has been hiding it from everyone fairly well until something happens and he’s forced to reveal to Germany that he has it.”Sometimes making food wasn't as easy as it seems. And sometimes cheating at games was what it took to see your significant other.





	Love Hurts, Or Maybe It Doesn't

**Author's Note:**

> For @red-velvet-temptress on Tumblr  
> I apologize if this isn't really what you wanted.

To be honest, this game wasn’t very fun to Alfred but that was probably because there was no possible way to lose it. There was no competition in a game about flinching when you couldn’t fear the pain. So really all this was achieving was Gilbert thinking that Alfred’s willpower was made of hard steel or some nonsense like that.  
  
He hadn’t explained what was going on, had he?  
  
Well, the basic rundown of the situation was that Gilbert had decided that Alfred couldn’t come to see Ludwig unless he proved himself to be more of a man than Gilbert. Which was really stupid in his opinion because that was really objective and probably needed approximately a billion judges of both genders to determine some sort of balanced answer but Gil was Gil and he had insisted. And he had determined that he was the only qualified judge nearby so basically this was just a ploy to prevent Alfred from getting anywhere close to his brother.  
  
Which was also stupid because he had failed the first three tests Gilbert had come up with and still come into the house. There wasn’t really anything Gil could do short of somehow reprogramming his brain to hate being in Berlin that would stop Alfred from seeing Ludwig. Or, you know….reprogramming his brain to feel pain.  
  
General discomfort, annoyance, anger? Those were all things that Alfred had no problem with. Or rather he had a problem with them but did actually experience them on a day to day basis. But physical pain? That was difficult.  
  
During World War I, he had been shot in the leg and hadn’t noticed it until after the battle. Arthur had yelled at him that he was bleeding he had looked down at his leg, which had been itching mildly, and seen the blood. All he could manage at the moment was a frown and an, “Oh…”  
  
Arthur had dressed the wound and smack the back of his head, “Why didn’t you say something, you idiot?”  
  
He had shrugged and smiled awkwardly, “I guess I have a high pain tolerance? And besides it’s not like it was going to kill me, it was just kinda uncomfortable.”  
  
Arthur had shaken his head and rolled his eyes before walking away muttering under his breath about Alfred’s stupidity.  
  
To be fair, it wasn’t like Alfred hadn’t noticed that he didn’t really feel anything when he knew he was supposed to hurt, it was just that he’d never realized up until that point that it was an actual problem he seemed to have. He also definitely understood that it wasn’t normal and he was most certainly not going to give anyone reason to believe that there was something wrong with him. Especially not when there were people in the world that might try to injure him when he was asleep just to see if he was telling the truth. It wasn’t as if he could still operate as if he wasn’t hurt if they did serious damage, he just wouldn’t be in agony. And he was not giving anyone an advantage, no siree.  
  
And now, Gilbert had decided that whoever flinched first was the least manly of the two and somehow that was allowing him to spend time with his boyfriend. After all, Gilbert hadn’t once gotten him to flinch and Gil was apparently very prone to fear. All Al had to do was move his arm rapidly in the former nation’s direction and he had won the game.  
  
It wasn’t fair to the other but Alfred wasn’t going to tell anyone that he was basically cheating at the game because this had been the first week in what felt like forever that he hadn’t been harassed to leave Ludwig’s house after entering. Instead, they were enjoying peaceful afternoons and movie nights without the trouble of one of their older brothers huffing in the background or verbally disapproving. It was refreshing.  
  
This particular night, Ludwig had asked that they cook together and Alfred couldn’t be more excited. There were a lot of things- not that he’s admitting to any of them- that he wasn’t good at; but, cooking wasn’t one of them. He could make some delicious food and tonight they were making their favorite meals for each other so there was no worry about not knowing the recipe. And yeah maybe it wasn’t fancy but there was nothing like a good cheeseburger with fries. He- obviously, because they hadn’t discussed it- didn’t really know what Ludwig was making but he was sure it was going to be worth it.  
  
The problem came when Alfred started cutting the tomatoes and, like an idiot, didn’t wait for Ludwig to finish using the cutting board. He knew better than to cut a tomato on the counter where he would most like leave marks; so, instead, he had attempted to cut the fruit vegetable thing in the palm of his hand.  
  
It wasn’t really that big of a deal. Honestly. It wasn’t like he’d hurt himself, it was physically impossible to do so. Besides, he was smart, and it wasn’t like he couldn’t feel pressure. He doubted he’d cause any damage at all. However, as he’d been told about a billion time by about a billion people: perhaps his expectations of himself were a little too high.  
  
Ludwig saw the blood before he did and that was a real problem because Alfred was still moving the knife and he had already cut himself once so this basically looked like he didn’t care about his own well being and was generally uninterested in treating his wound. Ludwig, however, was giving off the exact opposite impression and had wrenched the knife out of Alfred’s hand before he had processed what was going on. In the process, the taller man cut his own finger and flinched causing Alfred’s own concern to rile up. He had tossed the tomato on the counter and reached for Ludwig’s hand before he noticed his own blood running down his hand.  
  
Ludwig was frantic; he had shoved his own finger in his mouth to clot the bleeding but that didn’t stop him from fussing at Alfred. All Al could understand though was: “Irresponsible” and “‘m worried”. He allowed Ludwig to shove his hand under the faucet while he reached under the counter for his first-aid kit. He had, at this point, removed his finger from his mouth and was now completely understandable, “Don’t you know to stop using the knife when you hurt yourself?! You don’t have to be so tough! Isn’t your hand burning? Tomatoes are acidic and I don’t understand why you would ignore the stinging in your hand? Alfred? Are you listening to me? You need to be more careful and take care of yourself!”  
  
Alfred smiled nervously, “I wasn’t trying to be tough I just didn’t feel it.”  
  
Ludwig rolled his eyes and continued in a disbelieving voice, “You didn’t feel it? You cut yourself while holding something acidic and you didn’t feel it?”  
  
Alfred nodded, “Honest. I really didn’t notice.”  
  
Ludwig looked a confused, “You sound sincere but you’d have to be really good at ignoring things to not be able to feel acid burning an open cut. Which I suppose you are but-”  
  
Alfred sighed, “Lud? I really can’t feel it. I still can’t feel it. I promise I’m not trying to worry you.”  
  
He had never planned on telling anyone really but the worry in Ludwig’s eyes was probably a lot more stressful than giving his significant other the trust it required to understand each other. Ludwig tilted his head to the side and paused opening the first-aid kit. For a few moments, the only sound was the running water of the faucet, “You can’t feel it?”  
  
Alfred nodded but found that he couldn’t make eye contact while explaining, “I can’t feel it. I can feel the pressure of the water hitting my hand. I can feel the slight tickle on my skin as the water drips off of me. But I can’t feel the cut and it doesn’t hurt. When I get shot I feel the pressure of the bullet and an itch kind of like a bug bit but more intense. It doesn’t hurt. Nothing hurts.”  
  
Alfred glanced up at his boyfriend and Ludwig blinked still looking concerned, “Nothing?”  
  
Alfred shook his head and took a deep breath before taking his hand out from underneath the water, “I’m okay. But your finger hurts right? We’ll fix me up in a minute but you should get the tomato juice out of your cut, babe.”  
  
He gently took Ludwig’s hand and placed it under the water instead, cleaning out the cut. After he had applied all the necessary medicine, he started to wrap the finger in a band-aid. That’s when Ludwig spoke again, “Why didn’t you tell me?”  
  
Alfred shrugged, “I don’t really think about it most of the time. And it’s not normal so I pretty much try to avoid it.”  
  
Ludwig nodded, “Okay. I have a question though.”  
  
Alfred smiled, “Shoot.”  
  
Ludwig gave a small smile back at him and began to dress the cut in his palm, “Doesn’t that mean you’re cheating at my brother’s game?”  
  
Alfred looked up, mockingly avoiding the question, “Maybe. But is it so bad that I want to spend time with you without him pestering us?”  
  
Ludwig snorted before giving an embarrassed chuckle, “You know, he’ll throw a tantrum if he finds out.”  
  
Al grinned, “He throws a tantrum now when he loses.”  
  
Ludwig shook his head, “You even if you were playing fair and lost I’d still let you in.”  
  
“I know you just love me too much to leave me outside.”  
  
He was glad he didn’t miss the blush that spread across Lud’s face or the quiet, “I do…”  
  
But he was even more glad that they were on the same page because, while he couldn’t the cut on his hand, he could definitely feel the warmth in his chest and the butterflies in his stomach.


End file.
